Ensemble Cherubim, a professional chamber choir dedicated to sharing Ukrainian culture with global audiences, has released an album of winter season carols—koliadky and shchedrivky—on the Centaur label under the title: Carols of Birds, Bells, and Peace from Ukraine. It has also just announced its upcoming concerts: January 7, 2027, in Boston at St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church, and January 9 in New York City at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Led by Ukrainian-American conductor and scholar Marika Kuzma, Ensemble Cherubim's music-making is unique and appeals to audiences in innovative ways. Its singers, some of the best-known choral artists in America, while of diverse ethnicities, embrace the Ukrainian language and culture as their own. These imaginative concerts combine music with spoken poetry and projected images.
The choir’s concert last December at Berkeley, California’s Zellerbach Hall featured renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, along with actors L. Peter Callender and Patrick Russell orating poetry by Hryhorii Skovoroda, Lesya Ukrainka, and Bohdan Lepky. Ms. von Stade sang in Ukrainian for the first time in her long, illustrious career.
Also performing was the award-winning Piedmont East Bay Children's Chorus, all non-Ukrainians—singing pieces by Kyrylo Stetsenko and Iryna Aleksiychuk in beautiful Ukrainian. After the concert, the Grammy-winning Ms.von Stade commented that it was one of the most memorable concerts of her life. Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike commented that the program was revelatory and beautifully performed, describing it as "a concert for the ages."
The concerts in January will be the first time that Ukrainian choral music is performed at St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church in Boston, and at New York’s historic St. John the Divine, the largest cathedral in North America.
In Boston, Ensemble Cherubim will be joined by soprano Dominique LaBelle, violinist Daniel Stepner, and the Boston Children's Chorus. In New York, it will be joined by the Moloda Dumka children's chorus, led by Vasyl Hrechynsky, the Cathedral Children's Chorus led by Bryan Zane, and other artists to be announced soon.
Along with raising cultural awareness and lifting spirits, both events will raise funds for the children of Ukraine.
The concert in Boston, sponsored by Adrian and Mary Pryshlak and Daria Pryshlak in memory of their parents Peter and Stephanie, will benefit Doctors United for Ukraine in their campaign to aid pediatric care at the Okhmatdyt maternity and children's hospital in Lviv.
The concert in New York will support the Olena Zelenska Foundation's "Safe School" program, which provides underground shelters within Ukrainian schools. Both concerts are certain to lift the spirits of all who attend.
Ensemble Cherubim's name comes from the Ukrainian and Church Slavonic Kheruvym, a host of angels. The singers first assembled to record an album released on the Naxos label in 2013: Bortniansky, I Cried Out to the Lord: choral concertos and hymns. Prof. Kuzma has published extensively on Bortniansky's music in several languages and prestigious journals. The album and her research have met with international critical acclaim. Currently, Kuzma is a contributing author to the Ukrainian History Global Initiative led by Timothy Snyder.
Ensemble Cherubim's new recording and its upcoming concerts—like the concert last year— are related to Marika Kuzma's book Carols of Birds, Bells, and Sacred Hymns from Ukraine: An Anthology and Cultural Companion.
Published by Cambridge Scholars in 2024, it provides an overview of Ukrainian choral music history in relation to the country’s political history, and includes biographies of composers, and an anthology of sixteen pieces spanning many centuries from ancient chant to contemporary song.
Professor Kuzma has given talks on her book and this repertoire at universities including Harvard, Wesleyan, UNC-Chapel Hill, the University of Southern California, the University of Toronto, and at Ukraine House in Washington, DC. The recording features sixteen of the carols that she describes in her book.
Cherubim Ensemble looks forward to flocking together again on the East Coast, enchanting new audiences with this varied, vibrant music, and raising funds for vital assistance to support the children of Ukraine at this very difficult time.
The album Carols of Birds, Bells, and Peace from Ukraine is already available on streaming platforms and for purchase on Amazon.
The concerts will take place on January 7 in Boston at Saint Cecilia Roman Catholic Church (18 Belvidere St., Boston) and on January 9 in New York at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (1047 Amsterdam Ave., at 112th Street, New York City). More information is available at ensemblecherubim.org.
Anne Chermak Dillen